Interview with Kat Martin

Interview with  Kat Martin

Affaire de Coeur's March Calendar Girl

New York Times bestselling author Kat Martin is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing in Missoula, Montana with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, Kat has written sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.

 

1. When you write, do you outline first, or are you a pantser? 

      I used to write a synopsis of around 20 pages that was like reading a short story of the book.  That doesn’t work for me anymore.  The plots I’m writing are more complex now.  I have to figure out how to solve the problems as I go along.  So it’s sort of a combination of panster and plotter.

 

2. What type of characters do you like to create?

I usually come up with a story line then figure out what type of people I need to tell it.  Sometimes, however, I start with a character, as I did with Hawk Maddox in The Deception.  He was such a powerful guy he became the focus from the start.  Then I just had to find a heroine who could handle him.

 

3. Tell us about your new book or series.

Currently, I’m in the middle of my Maximum Security series.  Three brothers and some of their friends.  Maximum Security is a private firm with detectives, bounty hunters and bodyguards.  Chase Garrett is the owner.  His story begins the series with The Conspiracy.  Next, Hawk Maddox, a bounty hunter who works at The Max, is the hero of The Deception, followed by Brandon Garrett’s story, The Ultimate Betrayal.  The Deception is available in hardcover.  The paperback release will be out April 28.  The Ultimate Betrayal will be out July 28.   

 

4. What is your favorite passages/scenes in your current release?

My newest novel is The Deception.  Kate Gallagher and Hawk Maddox are two of my favorite characters.  They meet at a country western bar called The Sagebrush Saloon.  Kate is there to bury her sorrow after she is forced to identify the body of her younger sister, who has been murdered.   Seducing the big cowboy with the incredible body will help her wash the memory away at least for one night, she believes.  It doesn’t go the way she planned, but the interaction between her and Hawk is a combination of heat and compassion that shows their attraction to each other, and the sort of man Hawk is under his tough façade.   It’s one of my favorite scenes in the novel.

 

5. What motivates you for a perfect writing day?

For a perfect day, everything revolves around the story.  If I’m excited about the scene or scenes I’ll be writing, if the words begin to flow, it’s a perfect day.

 

6. How/where do you get your plot ideas?

I just see things and file them away.  I read something in the newspaper, see it on the  news, or just get a thought in my head.  I’ve been writing short stories between novels.  All of them are connected in some way to the book they are ultimately being printed in.  I am looking for plot ideas as I’m writing the novel. 

 

7. Did you need to do research for the story? And what kind of research did you need to do?

I heavily research all of my stories.  It’s the only way I can be sure I get the information correct.  Some of it I do ahead of time.  Much of it I do as I go along, looking up things I need to know about a particular scene or situation in the book.  Criminal investigation techniques change constantly, which is a big factor.   In The Deception, I dug up a lot of info on drugs and human trafficking.  My next novel, The Ultimate Betrayal, revolves around the theft of chemical weapons from an army depot in Colorado.  The research was huge, but I think the book came out well because of it.

 

8. What is your favorite thing about being an author?

I like being able to set my own schedule, I like the people I meet, and mostly I like the challenge of finding a way to tell an interesting story.

 

9. Is there a genre that you've been wanting to try writing?

I am happy writing contemporary Romantic Thrillers.  They’re the stories I want to tell.

 

10. How many books do you currently have out on the market and what genres do they fall into?

I have written about 75 novels.  I have a lot of Regency Historicals out there.  I have Western Romance novels, a couple of straight contemporaries.  Mostly I have Romantic Suspense and Romantic Thrillers. 

 

11. Will you be attending any book signings or conventions?

I’ll be in Rapid City, South Dakota for Western Writers of America in June.  That’s actually my husband’s area of expertise, though as I said, I’ve written a number of Western Romances, both historical and contemporary.  I’ll also be at Thriller Writers in New York City in July, one of my favorite conferences. 

 

12. Pass on some words of wisdom, please, to aspiring authors.

Figure out what you enjoy reading, see if that is what you want to write and if it is, write your book.  Don’t let anyone talk you out of it.  You can adjust over the years, but you need to please yourself first.  Then just stick to it.  Persistence is the difference between success and failure.  Wish you the best of luck!

Purchase The Deception

Please give us the following contact information:

Personal web page.  www.katmartin.com

Twitter @katmartinauthor         

Facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor

 

 

 

 

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